The Song of the Sword, and Other Verses

By William Ernest Henley

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Song of the Sword, and Other Verses" by William Ernest Henley. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DigiCat
• Release date: Sep 4, 2022
• ISBN: 8596547216032

Book preview

William Ernest Henley

The Song of the Sword, and Other Verses

EAN 8596547216032

DigiCat, 2022

Contact: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

I

II

III

IV

RHYMES AND RHYTHMS

I

II

III (To R. F. B.)

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII (To J. A. C.)

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII (To James McNeill Whistler)

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII CARMEN PATIBULARE (To H. S.)

XVIII (To M. E. H.)

XIX

XX

XXI

XXII

XXIII (To P. A. G.)

XXIV (To A. C.)

XXV

I

Table of Contents

Andante con mote

Forth from the dust and din,

The crush, the heat, the many-spotted glare,

The odour and sense of life and lust aflare,

The wrangle and jangle of unrests,

Let us take horse, dear heart, take horse and win—

As from swart August to the green lap of May—

To quietness and the fresh and fragrant breasts

Of the still, delicious night, not yet aware

In any of her innumerable nests

Of that first sudden plash of dawn,

Clear, sapphirine, luminous, large,

Which tells that soon the flowing springs of day

In deep and ever deeper eddies drawn

Forward and up, in wider and wider way

Shall float the sands and brim the shores

On this our haunch of Earth, as round she roars

And spins into the outlook of the Sun

(The Lord’s first gift, the Lord’s especial charge)

With light, with living light, from marge to marge,

Until the course He set and staked be run.

Through street and square, through square and street,

Each with his home-grown quality of dark

And violated silence, loud and fleet,

Waylaid by a merry ghost at every lamp,

The hansom wheels and plunges. Hark, O hark,

Sweet, how the old mare’s bit and chain

Ring back a rough refrain

Upon the marked and cheerful tramp

Of her four shoes! Here is the Park,

And O the languid midsummer wafts adust,

The tired midsummer